p.m. eastern time. thanks for watching, everyone. "wolf" starts now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. i'd like to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we're following a desperate escape from brutal islamic militants in iraq. a political struggle over the country's future. here are the latest developments. crowds of yazidi refugees made it to safety after escaping the threat by isis militants. the members of the religious minority were trapped on a mountain without food or water. yesterday, we showed you those heart-wrenching pictures as the yazidis clamored to get on a helicopter delivering aid. today, reports an iraqi helicopter has crashed during an aid mission. kurdish fighters backed by u.s. air strikes were able to break the siege by isis and help the yazidis escape. the u.s. military says warplanes

carried out another strike today against an isis mortar position and we've just learned the u.s. may be sending more military advisers to iraq. the obama administration is pinning its hopes for a new iraqi government on the prime minister-designate, haider al abadi. but maliki refuses to go quietly. the secretary says abadi has to form a new government as soon as possible. >> the government has a challenge. it needs to govern inclues sive but also take steps to demonstrate their resolve. we're going to continue to stand with the iraqi people during this time of transition. >> they walked for days down a desolate mountain. our senior international correspondent ivan watson has been documenting the plight of iraq's yazidi minority trying to escape murderous islamic

terrorists. he was there as yazidis made it to safety across the iraqi/syrian border. >> reporter: look at these people, fleeing across borders to escape isis militants. on this bridge which leads from a kurdish-controlled part of syria here into iraqi kurdistan, we've been watching a stream of desperate families carrying little more than the clothes on their backs walking. some of these people have been on the move for days. some of them have been camping. and now they're arriving here in iraqi kurdistan after fleeing their homes. in many cases, in just a matter of minutes. this stream of people, thousands every hour, has been continuing, i'm told, for days across this bridge. and it's a part of a much larger wave of desperate people all across the north of iraq who are fleeing isis militants, which appears to be carrying out a

campaign of ethnic and sectarian cleansing. because many of these people, i mean, just look at the faces, look at the children here and what they're able to bring with them after they've been made instantly homeless. and these people -- and we've seen it, will end up tonight sleeping on roadsides. sleeping in ruined abandoned buildings. because there is simply no place else to go. the cash-strapped government of the kurdish region of northern iraq is trying to help some. there are some international organizations helping. but for the most part, this is a local project to help these people escape danger and come to a new place where there is no infrastructure and hardly any network of support for these people. and you can see how dazed they are. when they come across the border

and they have to find some place else to go it these are not warriors. these are the elderly. these are children. these are mothers. these are fathers and husbands desperate to find some place where they can protect their families. this is a humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in front of our eyes here in iraqi kurdistan. ivan watson, cnn, reporting from the peshabor river between the iraqi kurdistan and syria. >> the u.s. military continues to strike isis positions from the air. kurdish peshmerga fighters are making a dent in a huge swath in northern iraq. they took control of this city on sunday. that doesn't necessarily mean

it's safe by any means. our correspondent is joining us now from erbil. you and our photo journalist were there earlier today. tell us viewer was you saw. >> yes, that's right, wolf, we traveled to this border town, if you like, it's really the front line of the peshmerga's fight against the isis militants. and as you say, they managed to retake this town several days ago, after isis came in, seized the territory, claiming that it was part of its new islamic state. well, thanks to the u.s. air strikes that took place over the weekend, the peshmerga were able to move back into this area, fight the isis militants and reclaim this town. but i must say, wolf, it is an absolute ghost town. nobody is there. and those who were there were packing up their belongings after returning because

obviously the peshmerga now have it, have control of it. packing up their belongings and getting out of there because they don't feel safe. isis is just a matter of kilometers away. that is how close they are. the mesh hper her ga took us to the remnants of those u.s. air strikes. several kilometers past the front lines, we turned off, we were there only for a short time, but we saw what was once an artillery piece being used by isis against the kurdish forces. so it was quite incredible. because the peshmerga had never seen this before. it was the first time they had actually seen this piece of artillery that had been taking them out for days. to then witness what this u.s. air strike had done, completely destroyed this piece of artillery, they were truly

amazed. it certainly buoyed spirits and confidence and morale. you know, as i say, they do believe they can fight the isis militants. but the residents who returned for their belongings, wolf, they don't agree. they honestly believe that isis will reclaim this territory. they know how aggressive they are. they know how brutal they are. they really just fear for their lives. so theme gone home, gathered whatever belongings they can. we saw this mass exodus of cars and trucks leaving makhmour and heading to us here where we are now in erbil, wolf. >> anna, as you point out, they're under no illusions. u.s. air strikes certainly can be helpful, destroying an artillery position here, an artillery position there, that certainly will help, but the isis forces, they are well armed, they're well equipped, they have a lot better equipment than the peshmerga, the kurdish fighters, have. they need a lot more support to get the job done. otherwise, it's just going to go on and on and on.

>> yeah, absolutely, this artillery piece, it was actually a piece of u.s. weaponry that was once used by the iraqis, but isis, as we know, seized a whole bunch of american weapons, so they are well armed, and they are outgunning the peshmerga. speaking to the kurdish forces, they say they need more air strikes. they need the americans patrolling the skies. otherwise, they're not willing to go beyond the front lines that they have established. they were very reluctant to take us to go and see this artillery piece, which if you like was in no-man's-land because literally, you know, two kilometers that way was a town that we know isis militants are staying at, so they need the air strikes to continue. they also need weapons. we do understand that these weapons from the americans are getting directly to the kurdish

forces, but obviously, as we know, they definitely need a lot more help. >> they need a lot more weapons. so far, they've been getting some ammunition from the u.s. but they really need some heavy weaponry if they're going to take on these isis terrorists. anna coran, thanks very much, stay safe over there, we'll be in close touch with you. the u.s. is considering some various ways to help these remains yazidis trapped on iraq's mt. sinjar and ways to help the kurdish fighters battle the isis militants. the plan may involve sending more u.s. military advisers to iraq. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is picking up this part of the story. how many more military advisers? how many more u.s. soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, is the pentagon planning on sending to iraq? >> well, wolf, let's just talk about this within the context of military advisers. what we're looking at is the possibility of up to 75 additional military advisers,

advisers only, going to northern iraq to help look at two problems. what does it take to help the peshmerga fighters. they need more arms, more ammunition, more weapons. what do they need to get back on their feet. but the bigger issue perhaps is what can the u.s. do along with other countries to get those people trapped on that mountain off of there. so expect to see these advisers once it's approved and if they go to begin to look very hard at the options, the possibilities of what could be done. officials are telling us one of the biggest problems right now is trying to determine how many people are really there. you know, you look at the video and you can certainly see hundreds at a time. they don't know if there's 5,000 or 20,000 people on top of that mountain. so they need better intelligence. they need to know who's there. they're beginning to work on the concept of what options, if countries ban together, could there be to get those people off that mountain. it is going to take military capability to do it, whether

it's aircraft or vehicles. it's going to take a security element on the ground. it will be a very vast undertaking. but that is what these new advisers are going to be looking at, wolf. >> as you know, barbara, there's a lot of concern about what's called mission creep. you start off with a few dozen advisers, then a few hundred advisers. are they up to 1,000 yet as far as over the past two months? are there 1,000 new military advisers in iraq as we speak right now? >> you know, it all is really a number situation, wolf. you have about 250 u.s. military advisers. so there's still under that sort of cap that the president set of no more than 300. but you do have over 700 military personnel in total in iraq. a good many of them are doing security. security at the u.s. embassy and security based out of the airport in baghdad to be ready to go if that embassy had to evacuate for example.

you have about 250 people in the role of advisers and running these joint operations centers which are the heart of the advisory mission and the balance of up to over 700 included in that doing the security mission. the administration's very sensitive to the question creep question. if these new advisers go in to help with an evacuation plan, that, in fact, will be a new mission. the administration will make the case this is an unanticipated unbelievable humanitarian crisis that they have to do something about it, wolf. >> i assume there are a lot of contractors the u.s. has sent in as well, in addition to the active military personnel serving as advisers, right? >> i think it's fair to say there are some contractors. i don't believe you're going to find a lot of them in the type of quasi combat role we saw in iraq in the old days. a lot of this is working some of the very high-tech lbintelligen

and communications systems. contractors have a lot of expertise in that. and that is all part of the overall u.s. mission in iraq. >> just a technical question, the military advisers and -- between the 300 and 700, we're talking about 1,000 active duty u.s. military personnel in iraq right now, right? >> no, let me go back. if you start at the top line, it's over 700, just over 700 military personnel in iraq. within that 700, there are about 250 military advisers. >> all right. do they wear uniforms or are they in civilian clothes? >> to the best of my knowledge, wolf, these people are there very openingly and that means they're in u.s. military uniforms. this is with the permission of the iraqi government. it is fundamentally no different for the u.s. military than how they operate around the world. helping train and advise in many countries around the world. it is usually done by special

forces. some of them may not be. a good many of them are. they are, by all accounts, in u.s. military uniforms. >> and they have immunity from iraqi prosecution? >> a deal was worked out on this several weeks ago, as you recall where, yes, they have all the legal protections according to the u.s. administration that they need. the u.s. is very satisfied that the maliki government will protect them and of course it was the maliki government that wanted u.s. help in the first place. >> yes, i suspect, though, that 700 number eventually is probably sooner rather than later go up to 1,000. as you correctly point out, and i know this as well, they are very concerned about this phrase mission creep, it's a very, very sensitive issue out there right now. barbara, thanks very much for that report. barbara starr at the pentagon. so is there a political solution to the crisis in iraq? our own fareed zakaria, he's standing by. we'll discuss the u.s. options in iraq, the future of nuri al

maliki. can there be a peaceful handover of the government in baghdad? also, we're going to take you live to baghdad where two car bombs have just exploded. stay with us, we'll be right back. and that became our passion. to always build something better, airplanes that fly cleaner and farther on less fuel. that redefine comfort and connect the world like never before. after all, you can't turn dreams into airplanes unless your passion for innovation is nonstop. ♪

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imagine loving your numbers. ask your doctor about invokana®. at least nine people are dead after two car bomb attacks in baghdad. nick, you actually heard one of those bombs explode, is that right? >> it went off behind us while we were reporting from here, a black plume of smoke in the karada district, one of two bombs, the other just slightly to the south of that, seem to have killed at least nine people. differing casualty tolls here.

sadly, relatively frequent occurrence particularly in those shia neighborhoods where these two devices struck. coming at a particularly tense time of course wolf because today it became very unclear as to what exactly nuri al maliki, in the eyes of many, the former prime minister of iraq, will do next. we've seen john kerry, the u.s. secretary of state, suggest that the prime minister-designate haider al abadi is effectively the man who will run the next government. even the french minister saying that maliki is responsible for the chaos iraq has found itself in. the west clearly moving on concerning maliki history. iran even, a staunch backer, saying they will respect the prime minister-designate, that particular choice. we've only heard from him once today, to appear on state tv, urging them, having threatened the use of force to keep himself in power, telling the military and police chiefs to stay out of politics. so no one's quite sure what his next move is. that is what's keeping people on

edge in this city. there's been so much turmoil in iraqi politics. the fact he hasn't accepted it yet has everyone on edge. >> what about this iraqi military helicopter, nick, that crashed today, trying to bring some aid to the yazidis trapped on mt. sinjar? we're told the pilot was killed. "the new york times" reporting one of their correspondents alisa rurubin, a well-known fortunate correspondent for "the new york times," she was on that cover. she had apparently a concussion, broken wrists. her photographer is okay. a yazidi member of the iraqi parliament was on that helicopter. what can you tell us about what happened? it sounds very, very disturbing. >> well, according to the iraqi military spokesman, an ml-17 helicopter suffered a technical issue which caused it to crash. it was flying over a contested area. you've seen how much machine-gun fire they use in ivan watson's

report when they deliver supplies. many wonder about the circumstances of that helicopter falling out of the air. it just goes to highlight exactly how dangerous these aid rescue missions are. that 20 people were heavily injured, one person lost their life when they fell out of the sky. it's perilous for those on the mountain. it's perilous for those trying to rescue then as well. >> do we know if it was hostile fire or some technical problem that brought down that helicopter? are they still investigating? >> as i say, the iraqi military says it suffered a technical failure. now, of course, sometimes in the past i've seen that as a euphemism for entering a hostile zone. you've got to hold that possibility out, given the area. perhaps it was navigating in, but certainly troubling for those trying to continue these aid flights. the amount of solace they bring is small, a helicopter trying to help potentially thousands of

people. the number not precise at this stage. only able to bring out about 20 on that rescue run. >> what is worrisome is the isis forces, they stole a lot of iraqi military equipment, mostly u.s. supplied, including shoulder fired surface to air missiles, other surface to air missiles that make those helicopters, those planes trying to help those yazidis and other christians, minorities, so, so vulnerable. nick patton walsh in baghdad. up next, fareed zakaria's take on wahat's going on in ira, whether he thinks maliki will go quietly or engage in some sort of military coup. your 16-year-old daughter

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let's get right back to our top story, the crisis in iraq. the u.s. now considering sending more military advisers to iraq to help cope with the humanitarian crisis. we're also hearing today the u.s. is backing a new leader for iraq, haider al abadi has been nominated to be the next prime minister. the secretary of state john kerry is urging him to form a new cabinet as quickly as possible. fareed zakaria is joining us from new york. it's by no means a done deal, though, fareed, nuri al maliki, the current prime minister, he might not go quietly, he may try to use the forces loyal to him to effectively engage in some sort of coup. wa

what's your analysis? >> my own sense, wolf, is he won't do that. there are many, many forces within the iraqi political system that would be very strongly opposed to them. most importantly, ayatollah sistani, the chief shiite cleric of iraq, has always been clear iraq needs to be on a democratic path. you remember early on when we were watching the iraqi politics begin, sistani was very clear on the need for elections, for democracy. so i would suspect that he would come out strongly opposed to this. in that case, maliki's support would collapse. maliki's support has largely collapsed. what he is now holding on to is the thin reed that says technically he was meant to be asked first because he's the leader of the largest bloc. that's an academic issue because his bloc, the support has disintegrated. i would suspect he might mount some kind of legal challenge but he would not try to use his position as commander in chief

to do what you siay rightly woud be a mill caritary coup. >> abady, a shiite, can he unite the country? can this group effectively take iraq to a position that all of us hoped it would be at but clearly has not reached that point by far. >> that's the million dollar question. wolf. because what we have focused a lot on is the fact that maliki's the bad guy, he didn't reach out to the sunnis and, you know, we need change and that's true and maliki has been a very sectarian and also somewhat incompetent leader. but there is a larger sectarian dynamic in iraq, which is to say abadi is himself from the same party maliki is in. a pretty tough hard-line party. all these guys spend most of their time in iran before, in exile. so they're often somewhat

pro-iranian. they're pretty tough in terms of viewing themselves as shia first and iraqi second. the other positions in the government aren't very important, you know, the speaker and the deputy speaker and all these positions so what we've seen in the past is you have a lot of personalities and you have the right ethnic mix but it doesn't matter because the dynamic of the system is making the shiite politicians act more sectarian. that makes the sunnis act more sectarian. the kurds essentially trying to retain their independence. i'm not very hopeful. i think it might be better. but you have a sectarian dynamic at work in iraq. if you just look at the people who are guarding these various groups. it's the shiite soldiers who are essentially guarding the shiites. the sunnis are more in the sunni areas. even the army in other words has fragmented into kind of sectarian units. >> so in the end, maybe when all is said and done, what joe biden and others recommended years

ago, some sort of partition, if you will, of iraq into a sunni area, a shiite area, a kurdish area, that may be the best solution when all is said and done. >> i think there's a lot of wisdom there. i think people do need to take a look -- a second look at what joe biden was suggesting. which was, by the way, to be fair to him, a loose federation. he always understood you couldn't really partition as cleanly because, as you know, wolf, the middle of the country, which would be the sort of sunni land, is actually full of shias. baghdad has lots of shias in it. so how would you do it? historically the way these happen is you have a certain anlt of ethnic cleansing. the sunni leave the shia areas it the kurds are, in any case, pretty much hermetically sealed. maybe there's going to be a great sorting out in the middle east. it's very sad to see. but think about what's happening. about 600,000 christians have

already left iraq, even before these latest strategies. you've seen christians flee syria. kurds flee syria. you're seeing the sunnis flee out of shia areas. in other words, what you're seeing is a kind of -- the end of any kind of multicultural middle east and what you're seeing is a very stark division where people are moving into their ethnic and religious corners. >> yes, so many hundreds of thousands, millions of people have been internally displaced or externally displaced in iraq over these past few years and now these isis militants control maybe a third of iraqi territory, which is a brutal occupation, if you will, by these isis forces. fareed, thanks very much, fareed zakaria joining us from new york. air strikes, food drops, rescue missions. we're seeing thousands and thousands of iraqis fleeing the threat of death. so what exactly do the kurdish fighters need to do to help save these people? we're going back live to iraq.

the chief of staff to the kurdish president standing by to join us live from erbil.

welcome back. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. let's get back to our top story. the u.s. military this morning conduct wad it's calling a successed if air strike against isis fighters in northern iraq. these kinds of air strikes are helping kurdish fighters and iraqi forces battle the extreme it's group and get some much needed aid to very desperate

people. thousands of adiddies, christians and many others, minorities, they're still trapped, many of them on mt. sinjar in the kurdish region of iraq. this is the chief of staff to bar sanny, the president of the kurdish regional authority, and fuad hussein is joining us from erbil. mr. hussein, thanks very much for joining us. i want you to update us, first of all, on this iraqi military crash. the pilot was killed trying to bring badly needed supplies to the religious minorities who are stranded. we know alisa rubin, correspondent for "the new york times," she was seriously injured, a concussion, broken wrists, an yazidi member of the iraqi parliament was on that helicopter. what happened? what can you tell our viewers? >> yes, we have got trhree iraq helicopters and these helicopters bring people to the mountain of sinjar. some journalists and other

members of parliament or government. to see the situation on the ground. this helicopter was there on the ground and while moving, it hit a rock there and then the pilot passed away unfortunately. the others, the other people who were in the helicopter, some of them, they were slightly injured. the journal it's from "the new york times" is in good shape. she is in hospital. but she has been treated already. and i think within a short time she will be in turkey. >> she'll be recuperating in turkey. we're talking about alissa rubin, the photographer from "the new york times." adam ferguson, i take it, he is okay. what about the yazidi member of parliament who was on board that helicopter, what do we know about her condition? >> no, no, all of them, they are okay, they have been slightly injured, but they have been treated by our doctors and

hospitals. so they are back. >> how does a pilot of a helicopter die if the helicopter hits a rock, let's say, because are you sure there was no hostile fire or anything like that, it was simply a technical problem? >> no, no, i'm sure, because i talked to pea there, and they told me while they were watching the helicopter, i'm sure about that. it seems it was a mistake from the pilot. it hit the rock and he didn't see that and that led to the damage of the helicopter while on the ground. >> mr. hussein, are you getting enough u.s. support, military hardware, equipment, to fight isis? >> yes, we are receiving military equipment from united states and we are grateful for that. >> what are they giving you? >> to start, just a few days ago, so it is the beginning, we

received some munition and we hope that we will get more because isis has got sophisticated weapons. they've got all kinds of weapons which the iraqi army had. unfortunately, these weapons, they were american originally. but isis has now got them and they are fighting with these weapons, so we need either the same kinds of weapons or mo sophisticated weapons so we can beat isis. >> so far, i'm told they've given you some ammunition basically, but eye sisis, they armored personnel carriers, tanks, very high-tech u.s. military equipment. you really, unless the united states steps up and provides you with that kind of military hardware, you're not going to be able to compete with isis. >> that's why my president and the kurdish leaders, all of them, they're asking the united states and other european countries to help the kurds with weapons and to continue striking

air strikes. it helps us also. but we need weapons so that our peshmerga, our fighters, can continue the fight against those terrorist groups. >> will they give you those weapons, the armored personnel carriers, the tanks, the artillery, are you going to get that kind of weaponry, attack help coppers, for example, from the united states? >> not yet, but they started. i hope they will continue. i hope we will get such kinds of weapons which can destroy the weapons that isis had. isis has got armored vehicles such as humvee and of course we don't have that. they have got tanks. we don't have tanks. they have got various kinds of artilleries and we have got shortages on that, as well as munitions. so we need all kinds of equipment so that we can

continue our fight against those terrorists. >> we know the peshmerga kurdish fighters are very courageous, very brave, but it's hard to compete with that kind of weaponry that the isis forces stole from the iraqi military after the iraqi military simply ran away and abandoned their bases, their warehouses and simply ran away. one final question, mr. hussein, before i let you go, nuri al maliki, will he go quietly into the night or will he fight this new government? >> i don't know what nuri maliki is going to do but he is trying again to get back to the power. he hijacked the political process. one of the reasons why we have got all these crisis have to do with his policy. maliki must go. few hours ago on behalf of my president i talked to haider al

abadi and we are supporting him and we want to cooperate with him so we can have a new government in baghdad and starting the fight against the state of terror isis groups, against the terrorist groups. >> fuad hussein is the chief of staff to the kurdish president. mr. hussein, thanks very much for joining us, good luck to you, good luck to all the people of kurdistan. kurdistan has been a very great friend to the united states and deserves a lot of support in this fight against isis. we appreciate you joining us. the situation in iraq one of the many foreign crises the u.s., the obama administration has to deal with right now. so many questions are out there. including one awkward moment the president's on vacation right now in martha's vineyard. we'll discuss the political ramifications of what's going on. that's coming up. you're driving along,

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just getting a statement in from the executive editor of "the new york times" on this iraqi military helicopter that crashed and alissa rubin, one of the correspondents for "the new york times," was on board, together with a photographer from "the new york times." today, alissa j. rubin, and adam ferg ferguson, were injured when an iraqi military helicopter carrying aid to stranded refugees crashed in northern iraq. they were airlifted to receive medical care. she is a close friend, an esteemed journalist. that statement just coming in from "the new york times." we wish then and everyone else only the best. the pilot of that helicopter, from the kurdish adviser to the president, was killed in that crash. apparently no hostile fire, technical problem. the helicopter went into a rock

and that's what happened. we'll get more information, share it with you. the amount of these foreign crises the u.s. is dealing with now, not dealing with in some cases, seems to be growing. so many are questioning the president's decision to go to martha's vineyard for vacation right now after he updated americans on the u.s. bombing campaign in iraq. let's bring in our chief political analyst gloria borger. gloria, you wrote a recent column talking about how the president's dealing with all these crises. it is awkward though, you got to admit, everybody admits, the president is playing golf, enjoying a few days off. but the timing right now seems to be awkward. >> yeah, it does. i'm not sure there's ever a good time for presidential vacations. i believe that a president is entitled to have some time off. i think the optics of what you were just showing, wolf, is not terrific for the president. but he cape out and he gave a statement yesterday about iraq. i'm sure he'll continue to do that. he's coming back to washington

soon for a weekend. look, i think his larger question here, wolf, is really, the american people understand what the president is not willing to do, right, they understand he doesn't want boots on the ground. and he's also told us that this is a humanitarian mission, this is a mission to protect u.s. personnel. but also in the last few days that mission seems to have broadened. he said he also wants to cripple isis. so what he has to do, and i don't care where he does it from or how he does it particularly, i think he has to tell the american people how he's going to do that without mission creep. how you can cripple isis without mission creep, how long it will take. i mean, he told us other the weekend this isn't going to be a matter of days or weeks. and so how he can achieve his goals if he has a very limited way of going at it. and i think those are the questions that are now being

raised by the american people that he ought to answer. >> the president and the former secretary of state hillary clinton, they're going to be in a little reception tonight vernon jordan's house on martha's vineyard. vernon, an adviser to several u.s. presidents. how awkward would that be, given her criticism in that "atlantic" interview the other day with jeffrey goldberg of the president's foreign policy when it comes to isis in syria and iraq? >> i think it's a little awkward. i think that may be one the reasons they're all there, to show their unity. as you know, also, wolf, david axelrod, former chief aide to barack obama, tweeted something about, you know, hillary today, saying, you know, there it is, just to clarify, don't do stupid stuff, which is what she referred to. means stuff like occupying iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision. now, don't forget, and i'm sure david didn't forget, that

hillary clinton voted to go to war in iraq, so there's a little bit of a ribbing there, and he's probably able to say things in a tweet that people in the white house who continue to be in government cannot say about hillary clinton. so i think, you know, barack obama has so i think barack obama has her loyalists and hillary clinton has her loyalists and that s subwar will continue to exist. >> gloria, thanks very much. >> you bet. coming up next, aid delivery. is it a white horse or a trojan horse? it depends on who you ask? a convoy is headed to ukraine. stand by. i go to angie's list to gauge whether or not the projects will be done in a timely fashion and within budget. angie's list members can tell you which provider is the best in town. you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare. now that we're expecting, i like the fact

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convoy left moscow today. and why is the convoy supposedly not going to be allowed to enter ukraine. >> reporter: this convoy is a russian trojan horse. instead possibly in the form of weapons to help those rebels. the pro-russian rebels who are currently surrounded by 50,000 ukrainian troops and engaged really in what appears to be a losing battle as the troops move in to their key strong holds of

donetsk. >> has the government made any provisions to get some aid there? >> reporter: there have been discussions for days about how to get them the help they need. this is what they have been going through. imagine, wolf, sitting in your home with no electricity, no running water and explosions all around you. that's what the families in eastern ukraine are going through. especially in luhansk. the question, though, is how to

safely get the real legitimate supplies from the families who need them. >> it's an awful, all of situation. we'll stay on top of it. will ripley is there in kiev. thanks for that report. that's it for me at this hour. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern, a special two-hour edition of the situation room for our international viewers. amanpour is coming up next. for our viewers in north america, brooke baldwin will be back after a very short break. new fiber one streusel. ♪ [music] defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. easily absorbed calcium plus d. beauty is bone deep.

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you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me on this tuesday. we have a big hour for you. any minute now, investigators in california will be holding a news conference on the sudden and incredibly shocking death of the legendary robin williams. he was a comic legend, also a master of drama. we are expecting new details from investigators. they will be revealing how the actor died. williams was found dead in his home in tiburon, california. he was 63 years of age. today, an autopsy is being